In preparation for our final design practice class I was really interested in creating another method that goes back to my initial values of what it is like to design from what we have got. Make the most of the time that we have with our loved ones and use this love to design. Through a fast paced design process I have taken a more metaphorical approach to my mini project and generating ideas drawings and models from thing in my home bubble that have a large significance and value to me and what is a driving factor behind my design process and what is underpinning my research project. These methods that I have followed in my mini project are as follows.
- Brainstorm/mind map- compile all the ideas that I have swirling around in my head and put them into a written format. Group like ideas and help me to narrow down a storyline/a strong link between my ideas.
- Photography- taking a walk around what is my current home environment and taking photos of details that I am really drawn to and connect strongly with, what give me the feeling that I am at home, I am safe and comfortable. A place where I am the most me.
- Sketching- creating a series of sketches on top of and without the images that I have taken around my current home environment. Use these pen lines and ink to highlight and point out the areas that I am very drawn to and that show both the connection that can be formed from very abstract and different elements.
- 3D modelling/prototyping- from these drawings, diving into these striking lines and dividing up the hierarchy of importance to a range of things… from my connection, comfort and love for the place I currently call home.
Also along this journey I have found and compiled a series of design precedents that I have found to be increasingly helpful when creating/redesigning my design process to help me dive deeper into my research area.
To list a few that have been driving the decisions and shaping my practice a lot, especially over the last week and they are as follows.
- Soapbox Sculpture- Jasmax
- This sculpture has been designed and build to act as a structure to acknowledge the 125-year history of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Designed and built by an all women team this Soapbox Sculpture optimises the strength that women in numbers can have. The main goal of the soapbox is to create and give a space for people to speak. However in his case the main goal of the sculpture is to highlight the history of women’s suffrage in New Zealand but his soapbox is anything by exclusive, even though it only had a temporal lifespan the sculpture aimed to give a space that everyone could come to speak from, observe, stand on and even sit on.
- “A playful solution to the hosing crisis”- Sarah Murray (Ted talk)
- In this TED talk the topics that are the main focus of the discussion are issues around the housing crisis and how creating a “game” that allows people to design their dream home and have it delivered to them can help reduce the people who are without houses. Due to the fast nature of this off site construction this therefore eliminates weather as being a determining factor for how long the build takes. Murray addresses the political issues of money and how this is a driver in the decisions that we make, and she also addresses a social issue of the housing crisis and how so many people are without homes due to the expensive nature of building a home, in both time and money.
- “Knowing through making: the role of the artefact in practice-led research”- Maarit Makala (text)
- In this text Maarit questions how art and design practice can combine and interact with research to continue to produce a large amount of new knowledge. How when art and design is combined with research it could create new points of view, and even new and creative ways of doing research. This article explores processes of making and the products of making through the lens of an artefact made by an artist-researcher, and how these are used to help give answers to the questions and research being conducted. This text identifies a lot of historical and political issues around the idea of determining what is research and what is design.
- Marion Bataille.
- “pop up book designer”
Georgia Christina Grace 